New Editions 2015

May 22–August 21, 2015

Albuquerque, NM - Tamarind Institute announces New Editions 2015 opening in the Tamarind Gallery May 22 through August 21. The gallery is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. — 5 p.m.

This collection of new lithographs released by Tamarind Institute during the past twelve months, typifies the diverse imagery for which Tamarind is known. Among the artists are Garo Antreasian, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Osmeivy Ortega, Hayal Pozanti, Robert Pruitt, and David Row. In addition to recent editions, Tamarind is releasing a suite of fifteen lithographs made with artists of the Kalahari sandveld region in western Botswana, Africa, in 2006.

Enrique Martínez Celaya was born in 1964 in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in Spain and Puerto Rico. Although he began his career as a physicist, today he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints, which are collected and exhibited around the world. Many collectors in New Mexico were introduced to Martínez Celaya's powerful work, The Pearl, featured in 2013 at SITE Santa Fe. SITE's 12,000 square foot gallery was transformed by his sculpture and paintings. Martínez Celaya lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

While at Tamarind to create Tamarind’s annual Collectors Club edition, Enrique Martínez Celaya completed three additional lithographs ranging in size from 19 by 13 inches to

44 by 60 inches. The lithographs are a poignant ode to the poet Robert Frost.

Born in 1980, in Havana, Cuba, Osmeivy Ortega’s images of birds and animals refer to growing up with his grandmother in the Cuban countryside. After studying law for five years, Ortega changed directions and pursued a career as an artist. Today, he teaches printmaking at the Instituto de Artes Superior in Havana. His work is exhibited widely, and Tamarind was pleased to host him in February 2015.

Hayal Pozanti was born in Istanbul, Turkey. Since receiving her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2011, Pozanti has had solo exhibitions at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; Duve, Berlin, Germany; Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy; and The Armory Show in New York. Her work has been featured in an impressive list of articles in Artsy, New American Paintings, The Huffington Post, Modern Painters, the Los Angeles Times, and the Paris Review.

In February 2015, Tamarind invited Pozanti, who is primarily a painter and sculptor, to make her first lithographs. Prior to coming to Tamarind, Pozanti shared this with the Paris Review (June, 2014), “As a Turkish immigrant who has moved from place to place, who speaks several languages, I'm intrigued by the possibility of creating a universal language to unite my cross-cultural experiences.” In her fourteen monotypes and two lithographs, Pozanti combines bold, unusual shapes to make hieroglyphic-like forms, as if inventing her own alphabet.

Houston-based artist Robert Pruitt worked at Tamarind Institute in August 2014. Pruitt received his BFA from Texas Southern University and his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. His work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, and is found in collections of institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Studio Museum Harlem.

According to his website, “He makes drawings and sculptures about the complexity of black identity by combining contrasting signs and imagery of disparate Black influences and aesthetics. He layers Science Fiction, Hip Hop, comic books, and black political and social struggles into layered portraits of his friends and community.” To hear the live webcast done at Tamarind with Pruitt, visit http://tamarind.unm.edu/artists/view/385-robert-pruitt.

Also included in this exhibition are lithographs by fifteen artists from Botswana, David Row, and Garo Antreasian, Tamarind's first technical director and master printer when Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Inc. opened in Los Angeles during the summer of 1960.